Gun Sales Continue to Fall From Last Year’s Historic Peak in 47 States

With more guns per capita than any country in the world, the United States is widely considered the civilian gun capital of the world. By the same token, it has among the highest gun violence, ranking 10th in gun deaths per capita. While gun sales have risen significantly during the pandemic, they have dropped in the past several months in most parts of the country, though it is unclear why. (These are the countries with the most gun deaths per capita.)

According to many experts, the proliferation of firearms has led to increased gun violence in America. Along with the rise in gun sales, the level of gun deaths has been increasing as well. As of Oct. 6, according to the Gun Violence Archive, 34,010 people have been killed by guns in the U.S. There have been 519 mass shootings in 2022. This type of violence occurs daily. (These are the states where the most murders are committed with a gun.)

Gun sales, as estimated by background checks, have risen sharply over the last two decades and hit an all-time high early during the COVID-19 pandemic – reaching a record annual level of 39,695,315 background checks in 2020. While gun background checks are not a one-to-one comparison of gun sales, they serve as a proxy, especially in identifying trends. 

Sales fell in 2021, but only by a modest amount, with 38,876,673 background checks. The decline, which began in the second half of 2021, became more dramatic in 2022. Through the first nine months of this year, background checks have fallen to 23,260,943, compared to 30,467,508 in the same period in 2021. In 47 states, sales dropped over the period, but the rate of the decline varied considerably from state to state. 

To determine the states where gun sales collapsed, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data from the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, listing all 47 states where firearm background checks in the first nine months of 2022 declined compared to the same period in 2021. States are ranked in order of the percentage decline in background checks. Population figures are one-year estimates from the Census Bureau’s 2021 American Community Survey. 

Background checks in Illinois fell by 58%, the most of any state. Illinois has traditionally been one of the states with the largest number of gun sales each month. There is no geographic pattern among the states where sales have fallen the most and also no convincing explanation as to why gun sales have been falling. It may be, in a nation where there are 400 million guns, that demand has slackened because of already enough supply.

Click here to see where gun sales continue to fall from last year’s historical peak in 47 states.

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